Storage Area Networks (SANs) have considerably increased the ability of servers to add large amounts of storage capability without incurring significant expense or service disruption for re-configuration. However, the ability to analyze SAN performance and/or availability has been limited by the models that have been employed. The lack of a systematic model of behavior specifically suited for the SAN objects and relationships limits several forms of important analysis. For example, it is difficult to determine the impact in the SAN, in the overall system and/or on the applications. Another example is determining the root cause of problems that are detected as symptoms in SAN, in the overall system and/or on the applications.
As with all modeling methods, the ability to use a model to determine the performance of a system is dependent upon the level to which the model represents the system. When only a limited number of network elements and/or relationships are represented in the model, the results produced by the model may not accurately correspond to the results produced by the system. The commonly-owned related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/176,982 provides a first method for presenting a systematic model suited for the SAN objects and relationships. However, model representation is limited to basic elements and configurations and lacks information regarding finer details of the system operation. Hence, to provide more accurate representation of the SAN, there is a need in the industry for an improved model of Storage Area Networks suitable for performing an analysis and more accurately determining causes of failures and the impacts of such failures.